Is Veep Too Smart For Its Own Good?

When Arrested Development won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2004, creator Mitch Hurwitz said in his acceptance speech, "Let's watch it. You wanna?" It's a show that in the primetime competitive landscape of the early 2000s couldn't find a wide enough audience—mostly because it was just too smart. No one watched it (by "no one," I mean it averaged 6.2 million people a week in its first season—a measly figure for a network comedy), and even though it took home a number of awards, Arrested Development was canceled after three seasons and became a cult classic.

Being "too smart" has long been the ailment of acclaimed TV shows that struggle to find a large, dedicated audience. But in 2017, with competing streaming services and premium networks throwing money at shows that critics deem "prestige," it's easier than ever for these intelligent and nuanced shows to survive. This is why we've been lucky enough for Veep to stick around for six seasons. The show has earned massive critical acclaim (and a whopping 12 Emmys) over its first five years—all despite a pretty meager audience. Its sixth season premiere drew only 659,000 viewers, which was 236,000 fewer than The Leftovers' season premiere that same night. With streaming numbers factored in, Veep has cumulatively averaged 4-4.7 million over its five seasons. That's certainly lower than Game of Thrones' most recent season premiere of 7.94 million (26 million cumulatively) and the debut of Westworld with 1.96 million (13 million cumulatively). Veep certainly isn't parallel to a behemoth like Game of Thrones or something with Westworld's hype, but HBO is capable of drawing these large audiences.

But the question remains, given the acclaim and all-star cast, why aren't more people watching Veep? The problem might be similar to Arrested Development, meaning it is just too smart and too fast. Consider a scene from Veep's season premiere: Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Selina Meyer walks into her new non-profit headquarters a year after losing the presidential election. But while she and her henchmen Gary (Tony Hale) and Richard (Sam Richardson) are entering this new setting and catching the audience up on the one-year gap between seasons, 20 jokes fly by within the span of a minute. That's one joke every three seconds. (In fact, while rewatching this scene in order to count them, I kept picking up on more subtle jokes.)

It's genius, but it's just challenging enough to make it hard for audiences to find time to laugh—if ever. The moment one joke sinks in, you've already missed three more. That's an assault that could turn off any casual viewer. Like in Arrested Development, the typical comedy cues—set up, punchline, pause for laughter—are non existent.

The challenge that Veep introduces also goes a little deeper than just its speed. It's a politics-themed show that the creators have always made great strides to remain apolitical. As Julia Louis-Dreyfus herself once bragged to Stephen Colbert, "Republicans and Democrats come up to me and say, 'You are getting them good.'" That in itself is an unreal accomplishment—it's impossible to determine whether Selina Meyer is on the left or right of the aisle. That's what makes Veep so fascinating and so smart, but it can also make viewers find it off-putting. To stay politically neutral at this time in American history—especially since Dreyfuss said this during the 2016 election—is almost unheard of.

But that's part of Veep's genius. Rather than get into the minutiae of policy, Veep is an analysis of the non-workings of our political system and these unpleasant personalities who rise into power and succeed as elected officials. In that way, it's more of a behind-the-scenes look than the rest of our most revered political dramas—with all the bickering, skewed ideals, and ungraceful grappling for power completely divorced from political ideology. Unfortunately, there's a reason being partisan is popular—polarized political opinions sell. Look no further than the stunning success of Stephen Colbert over his rival Jimmy Fallon in the ratings. This year, Colbert's left-leaning Late Show has consistently nabbed the top spot in late night TV over the more politically neutral Tonight Show. Audiences want shows that reaffirm their beliefs rather than challenge or twist them. That's the same reason Fox News is the biggest news network on cable television—a fact about which they're very eager to remind you.

What makes Veep especially challenging—particularly for viewers tuning into a political show—is that audiences don't exactly know if they're the butt of a joke or the ones laughing at it. When we dedicate time to a TV show, we often feel ownership over it; we want to relate to it and identify with its characters. But when it comes to Veep, just think about how scary that might be—to become invested in a show, only to find it's been laughing at you this whole time.

This struggle to find an audience is all at once a testament to brilliant writing—which is exactly why Veep deserves its consistent awards. Thankfully, we live in a different television climate than the one in which Arrested Development had its brief run. As challenging as it is, and even though the audience is tiny, Veep will continue to survive as long as it remains the smartest show no one is watching.

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